


scream

by vvelna



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 04:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16381550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vvelna/pseuds/vvelna
Summary: Phil is concerned about his neighbor.





	scream

**Author's Note:**

> bingo fic for the prompts "amnesia" and "communication"

“FUCK YOU, DANIEL! GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WATER!”

Phil was going to go next door. He had too. He’d been listening to his neighbor screaming through the wall for twenty minutes, and he was concerned. It wasn’t just that the voice was filled with so much palpable rage, but that Phil was pretty sure his neighbor was cursing his own name.

More like absolutely positive. The first time they’d passed in the hall Phil’s heart had down a flip off the wall of his chest, and he’d casually glanced at the name on a package waiting for Dan outside his door the next morning.

They’d exchanged pleasantries a few times. Dan was always friendly, but he seemed to be in a state of perpetual exhaustion, so Phil didn’t try to push their interactions in a more personal direction.

He stood outside Dan’s front door and hesitated. All he had to do was knock, wait for Dan to come to the door, and ask him if he was okay. That wasn’t so hard. Or he could go back to his flat, text their landlord a noise complaint, and let him deal with it. Confrontation avoided.

“GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT, DANIEL.”

Phil raised his fist and knocked on the door. He waited. No response. He could still here Dan’s voice, quieter but continuous. He knocked again, harder this time.

There was a loud crash from within the flat, and Phil started banging his fist on the door. It swung open mid-bang and he nearly punched Dan in the face.

“Oh,” said Phil, lowering his hand.

Dan looked bewildered and maybe even scared. He had headphones around his neck, the wire dangling down his chest. He was swimming in an oversized black hoodie and had one slipper on.

They stood without speaking for a moment that was slightly too long. Dan’s eyes dropped from Phil’s eyes to his lips and then darted back up again. Phil might have imagined that.

“Are you…did you need something?” Dan’s voice was hoarse from yelling.

“No, I was just—I heard you shouting and—”

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize how loud I was being—”

“—I was worried about you.”

Dan’s eyes widened. He fiddled with his sleeves, pulling them down over his hands.

“Worried?”

“Well, yeah. Because you sounded really angry, and you were screaming at yourself?”

Dan seemed so disoriented. Phil felt sorry for him. His hair was a tangled mess of greasy curls and dark circles lay beneath his eyes. He looked like he needed a shower, a cup of tea, and a long nap. He brought one of his hands up to his mouth and started chewing at his cuticles.

“You were saying your name. Daniel, right?”

“You know my name?” said Dan, fingertip still in his mouth.

Was that weird? They’d been neighbors for almost three months. Even if Phil hadn’t read his name off his mail, it wasn’t bizarre that he knew it.

Dan’s face was so scrunched up in confusion and concentration that Phil wanted to smooth it out like a tablecloth.

“You’re Paul, right?”

“Phil.” His heart sank just the tiniest bit. One foot in the water.

“Shit, sorry. I knew that. I’m really—I’m a little out of it right now.” Dan rubbed his face with his sleeve-covered hands and sighed.

“So about the screaming…”

“Oh, that. I was playing a game. _Amnesia: the Dark Descent._  It’s a video game. The character you play as is named Daniel.”

“Oh, right,” said Phil, internally spiraling in a vortex of embarrassment. He’d thought Dan was having some kind of self-loathing-induced breakdown and come running, when really he was just experiencing gamer rage.

“I wasn’t just, like, talking to myself, though. I mean, I was. There’s no one here. But I’m filming a playthrough. I make videos. For my YouTube channel?” Dan sounded like he was asking Phil to confirm that what he was saying was true, but Phil was still trying to catch up.

“So…you’re one of those YouTubers?” Phil wished he was capable of saying anything remotely intelligent.

“Um, yeah?”

Phil looked at Dan and Dan looked at him, and neither of them spoke. The conversation seemed to have come to an end. Phil was a fool, and Dan was probably dying for him to leave so he could go back to playing his game and filming.

“Well, sorry I bothered you. I’ll, uh…just be going now.”

“Wait!” Dan reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Phil’s jumper. Phil stared at his hand in wonder. “You came all this way—”

“I live next door?”

“—so why don’t you come in? I can make some tea? If you want?”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to get in the way of your game or whatever.”

Dan looked over Phil’s shoulder, like he thought someone might be lurking in the shadows down the hall. He took a step closer to Phil.

“This is really embarrassing, but the game I’m playing? It’s kind of seriously freaking me out. I’m playing in the dark for that ‘immersion’ bullshit everybody wants, and now I’m afraid to walk around in here by myself. So just pretend I’m a normal person who invited you in for tea, and save me from dying of fear.”

Phil kept his smile in check. Small, friendly—not the huge grin he wanted to unleash.

“I’d like that, yeah.”

Dan ushered him in and Phil decided not to comment on all the empty pizza boxes and mugs on and around the coffee table, or the piles of laundry taking over the sofa.

“Let me show you where I film,” Dan called over his shoulder, shuffling in one slipper and one bare foot toward a room off the lounge.

Phil followed him, stopping in the doorway. There was a desk with a keyboard and two monitors against the wall, an expensive-looking camera mounted above it and pointed at a desk chair that was toppled over on the floor.

“Oh, that.” Dan righted the chair and grinned sheepishly at Phil. “When I heard you pounding on the door I got spooked and might have fallen out of my chair.”

Phil couldn’t help laughing. Dan looked so cute and strangely small despite his stature. The image of him screaming angrily and then flying to the floor in his chair was too funny. Dan started laughing too.

When they’d both regained their composure, they journeyed to Dan’s kitchen, where they discovered that Dan didn’t have any tea. He didn’t have much of anything in the way of food. He started to apologize, but Phil cut him off.

“Alright, you’re coming back to mine. I’ve got plenty of tea, and popcorn, and we can watch a not-spooky movie. If you want to. If you’d rather not, I can go.”

Dan’s face brightened. “Really? You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Follow me, Daniel.”

Phil made sure to walk in front of Dan, where he couldn’t see his face. He was failing spectacularly at restraining the size of his smile.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> [ reblog/like on tumblr ](https://velvetnautilus.tumblr.com/private/179330300760/tumblr_ph0yuzEaGm1wm9q5f)


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